Automated navigation to exceptional condition cells in a merchandise planning system

• US 6,597,379 B1
• Filed: 09/15/1999
• Issued: 07/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Skinner, Marc P., Morris, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu; Sy D.
• Application Number:
  US09/396,251
• Time in Patent Office: 1,406 Days
• Field of Search: 345/781,803,804,808,809,810,830,853,854,968 707/3-6
• US Class Current: 715/781
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

A planning system for analyzing planning data, wherein the planning system includes a computer program that comprises a planning data window for displaying a view of the planning data; a definition system for defining exception criteria; a searching system for identifying exceptions in the planning data based upon the exception criteria; an exception dialog for displaying and selecting exceptions identified by the searching system; and a navigation system that allows a planner to navigate from exceptions listed in the exception dialog to and among the exceptions displayed in the planning data window. Exceptions located in the planning data window are annotated for easy recognition by the planner.

Claims

1. A program product having computer readable code stored on a recordable media for analyzing planning data, the program product comprising:

a planning data window for displaying a view of the planning data;

a definition system for defining an exception criterion, wherein the exception criterion includes at least one data comparison operation involving the planning data;

a searching system for identifying exceptions in the planning data based upon the exception criterion;

an exception dialog for displaying exceptions identified by the searching system, and for selecting a displayed exception; and

a navigation system for automatically displaying a page of the planning data in the planning data window containing the exception selected in the exception dialog.

2. The program product of claim 1, wherein the planning data window displays planning data in a plurality of cells within a spreadsheet.

3. The program product of claim 2, wherein the planning data window includes a system for annotating cells that meet the selected exception criterion.

4. The program product of claim 3, wherein the system for annotating cells places an exclamation mark within the cells that meet the selected exception criterion.

5. The program product of claim 1, wherein the definition system comprises a definition dialog in which an expression that compares values can be defined.

6. The program product of claim 5, wherein the definition dialog allows a scope to be defined.

7. The program product of claim 1, further comprising an exception criteria list dialog that lists defined exception criteria.

8. The program product of claim 1, further comprising a selected exception criteria list dialog that lists selected exception criteria.

9. The program product of claim 8, wherein the searching system can be launched from the selected exception criteria list dialog.

10. The program product of claim 1, wherein the searching system can be launched from the exception dialog.

11. The program product of claim 1, wherein the exception dialog comprises a sorting mechanism to sort the identified exceptions.

12. The program product of claim 1, wherein the exception dialog comprises a toggling mechanism for sequentially selecting displayed exceptions.

13. The program product of claim 1, wherein the exception dialog comprises a system for treating changed and locked planning data as exception data.

14. The program product of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of planning data windows for displaying a plurality of views of the planning data.

15. The program product of claim 14, wherein for each planning data window, the navigation system displays the page of the planning data that contains selected exception.

16. A computer system for analyzing planning data, the computer system comprising:

a processing unit;

a computer system memory accessible to the processing unit;

planning data stored on the computer system memory; and

a planning program stored on the computer system memory, wherein the planning program comprises;

a planning data window for displaying a view of the planning data;

a definition system for defining an exception criterion;

a searching system for identifying exceptions in the planning data based upon the exception criterion;

an exception dialog for displaying exceptions and associated planning data identified by the searching system and for selecting a displayed exception; and

a navigation system that automatically displays a page of the planning data in the planning data window that contains the exception selected in the exception dialog.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the planning data window displays planning data in a plurality of cells within a spreadsheet.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the planning data window includes a system for annotating cells that meet the selected exception criterion.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the system for annotating cells places an exclamation point within cells that meet the selected exception criterion.

20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the definition system comprises a definition dialog in which an expression that compares values can be defined.

21. The computer system of claim 20, wherein the definition dialog allows a scope to be defined.

22. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising an exception criteria list dialog that lists defined exception criteria.

23. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising a selected exception criteria list dialog that lists selected exception criteria.

24. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the searching system can be launched from the selected exception criteria list dialog.

25. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the searching system can be launched from the exception dialog.

26. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the exception dialog comprises a sorting mechanism to sort the identified exceptions.

27. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the exception dialog comprises a toggling mechanism for sequentially selecting displayed exceptions.

28. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the exception dialog comprises a system for treating changed and locked planning data as exception data.

29. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising a plurality of planning data windows for displaying a plurality of views of the planning data.

30. The computer system of claim 29, wherein the navigation system displays the page of the planning data that correlates to the selected exception in each planning data window.

31. A method for navigating to exceptions in a planning data window in a computerized planning system, comprising the steps of:

defining exception criteria;

searching planning data for exceptions based upon the exception criteria;

displaying exceptions and associated planning data located during the search step in an exception-dialog;

selecting a first one of the located exceptions in the exception dialog; and

displaying a first portion of the planning data in the planning data window, wherein the first portion of the planning data includes the first selected exception, and wherein the exception dialog remains visible.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

selecting a second one of the located exceptions in the exception dialog; and

displaying a second portion of the planning data in the planning data window, wherein the second portion of the planning data includes the second selected exception.

33. The method of claim 31, further comprising the step of annotating a cell containing the first selected exception in the planning window to indicate that the cell contains one of the located exceptions.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a second planning data window containing an alternate view of the planning data; and

displaying planning data in the second planning data window that includes the selected first exception.

35. A graphical user interface in a computer based planning system, comprising:

a computer database having planning data stored therein;

a planning data window for displaying a page of the planning data;

a definition dialog for defining an exception criterion, wherein the exception criterion includes at least one data comparison operation involving the planning data;

a searching system for identifying exceptions in the planning data based upon the exception criterion;

an exception dialog for displaying exceptions and associated planning data identified by the searching system, and for selecting one of the displayed exceptions; and

a navigation system that displays the page of the planning data in the planning data window that contains the selected exception.

36. The graphical user interface of claim 35, wherein the exception dialog includes a sorting mechanism for sorting exceptions.

37. The graphical user interface of claim 35, wherein the exception dialog includes a toggling mechanism for sequentially selecting displayed exceptions.

38. The graphical user interface of claim 35, wherein a data item in the planning data window can be changed, and wherein the exception dialog includes a mechanism for defining the changed data item as an exception.

39. The graphical user interface of claim 35, wherein a data item in the planning data window can be locked, and wherein the exception dialog includes a mechanism for defining the locked data item as an exception.

40. The graphical user interface of claim 35, wherein planning data window includes an annotation next to each data item identified as an exception.

41. A program product having computer readable code stored on a recordable media for analyzing planning data, the program product comprising:

a planning data window for viewing a logical view of the planning data, wherein the logical view is associated with a plan format and comprises a plurality of cells each containing a data item;

a scrolling system for moving to different pages of the logical view of the planning data;

an exception dialog for listing data items from the planning data that meet a predefined exception- criterion; and

a navigation system for selecting one of the listed data items in the exception dialog, and for automatically causing the planning data window to display the cell containing the selected data item.

42. The program product of claim 41, wherein the navigation system causes the logical view of the planning data to automatically scroll from an existing page to a new page in order to display the cell containing the data item.

43. The program product of claim 41, wherein the navigation system causes the logical view of the planning data to automatically drill down hierarchies in order to display the cell containing the data item.

44. The program product of claim 41, wherein the navigation system causes a second logical view of the planning data to automatically scroll from an existing page to a new page in order to display the cell containing the data item.

45. The program product of claim 41, wherein the navigation system causes the planning data window to annotate the cell containing the data item which meets the predefined exception criterion.